Problem: Determine the value of the following complex number power. Your answer will be plotted in orange. $ ({ e^{17\pi i / 12}}) ^ {20} $
Since $(a ^ b) ^ c = a ^ {b \cdot c}$ $ ({ e^{17\pi i / 12}}) ^ {20} = e ^ {20 \cdot (17\pi i / 12)} $ The angle of the result is $20 \cdot \frac{17}{12}\pi$ , which is $\frac{85}{3}\pi$ $\frac{85}{3}\pi$ is more than $2 \pi$ . It is a common practice to keep complex number angles between $0$ and $2 \pi$ , because $e^{2 \pi i} = (e^{\pi i}) ^ 2 = (-1) ^ 2 = 1$ . We will now subtract the nearest multiple of $2 \pi$ from the angle. $ \frac{85}{3}\pi - 28\pi = \frac{1}{3}\pi $ Our result is $ e^{\pi i / 3}$.